'Sydney Opera House, one of the world’s most famous music venues, has long had a problem. Everyone loves the building, but not everyone loves the way it sounds, especially in its largest venue, the Concert Hall, home to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and a stage for everything from rap artists to world-famous classical orchestras (Kanye West played in 2006. The Berlin Philharmonic played in 2012). Some feel the acoustics in the Concert Hall lack power. Many think the sound is different depending on where you are in the room. It’s said the hall is simply too big and its ceiling is too high. In 2014 actor and director John Malkovich said an airplane hangar would sound better.
But after 43 years of mixed reviews, the Concert Hall is finally getting a major upgrade. Theatre machinery, grid systems and the air-conditioning is all getting replaced. Better access and more room is being made available for people in wheelchairs. The biggest change will be to how the hall sounds: the stage will be lower, the walls beneath the boxes will tilt differently and new acoustic reflectors will replace the plastic ‘donuts’ that have been hanging above the stage since the Opera House opened in 1973.'
This idea has transferred itself into my mind when conceptualising possible installations. Therefore, I intend to conduct a series of experiments on speaker position and prop location within a specific room to see if I can make the sound project differently depending on a persons individual location within that room. By doing this, I hope to be able to possibly cut up sound and create a multi sectioned room which houses different emotions within the same space. I could also possible project the sound via a series of pipes or tubes to channel the sound-waves.
Other possible initial concepts for projecting different sets of emotions within the same room could be via the use of headphones. This concept has taken influence from 'silent discos' where the audience each has a set of headphones to wear. I found out through personal experience how this method can project different emotions by attending a 'silent disco' at a festival. Upon looking around, I noticed that some people are in a state of euphoria listening to the music through their headphones, and some people have their headphones off and are just talking casually. It is this contrast within emotions which struck me most profoundly, by the simple use of music within a room, the users emotions can be changed dramatically.
The reference to silent disco with headphones would also signify rave culture, this could be an interesting point to keep in mind if rave culture is the context of my instillation concept.
Typography through wires, iPhone adapters to headphones
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